Take a step back. Don't look in the present, where Mariano Rivera is hurt and Derek Jeter is spending the early season challenging .400. Don't project forward what either fact might mean to this Yankees season.

No, take that step back. Look at the big picture. Think perspective.

Consider those two guys walked into the Yankees' lives just about simultaneously, both getting their major league cups of coffee in 1995 and becoming cornerstones of a dynasty a year later.

No, really, think about it. The all-time saves leader and the shortstop — a guy who has us again, at the least, contemplating if he can take a run at 4,000 hits and Pete Rose — arrived in the same place at the same time. We are talking about arguably two of the best 50 players ever? The chances of them debuting within six days of each other for the same team are, what, one in a million? Two million? More?